Best and brightest in regional innovation celebrated at Innovate awards evening

Southern Victorian business, Terra Lab was named overall champion in the nbn and Regional Australia Institute (RAI) 2022 Innovate Grants Program, at an awards ceremony in Canberra last night.

In its third year, Innovate, assists businesses and individuals based in regional Australia to bring their big ideas to life. Up to $125,000 was awarded to regional businesses across Health, Agriculture, Tourism, Arts, Education, Indigenous Business and Women in Business.

Founded by Harley Shinago, Terra Lab provides a hardware and software solution, called STA Logger, to land managers to assist with pest and weed and pest management and management of planting saplings and crops.

Initially designed as a tool to assist natural resource managers, Terra Lab is now used by broadacre farmers and foresters.

“STA Logger is giving land managers all over the world control of their land by providing them with a type of data that has previously been absent, but in a streamlined and automated way,” Harley said.

“Controlling weeds is only one part of the equation. Most land managers, whether involved in forestry, conservation, or carbon offsetting, are also planting trees. Our hardware is multi-use and our platform is dynamic so we wanted to encapsulate that activity too.”

As the winner in the Agriculture category, Harley and the Terra Lab team were awarded $15,000, and as overall winner a further $20,000 to continue the development and expansion of STA Logger.

Terra was one of seven winners who took out first prize in their categories:

The Regional Australia Institute is a founding partner of the Innovate grant program.

RAI CEO Liz Ritchie congratulated the winners and praised them in their efforts in empowering the regions to thrive.

“This year’s winners and finalists represent the absolute best of regional business, community development and cutting-edge innovation,” Liz Ritchie said.

“All are fantastic examples of the role increased technology has in continuing to grow the prosperity and productivity of regional Australia.

“The RAI is proud, that through Innovate and our partnership with nbn, we are assisting regional entrepreneurs and innovators to transform their ideas into game-changing innovations to the next level.”

For media enquiries contact:

Regional Australia Institute 
Amanda Barwick
Ph: 0429142232
E: [email protected]